AutoMailMerge is a plug-in for Adobe® Acrobat® software
for performing PDF mail merge - filling PDF forms with data. Mail merge is a computer term describing the
production of multiple documents from a single
template form and a data file. This technique is used to create personalized
letters, documents, bills and pre-addressed envelopes or mailing labels for mass
mailings (or document creation) from a database of names and addresses. Using mail merge, all you have to do is create
one PDF form that contains the information that is the same in each version.
Then add some fillable form fields for the information that is unique to
each copy of the document. The plug-in uses a PDF form as a template and takes input from a variety
of data sources to populate form fields and generate output PDF documents.

Where do I start?

Start with downloading and reading one of the visual step-by-step guides that provide a good starting point:

Use this plug-in to create and send personalized PDF documents such as statements, invoices, letters, labels, coupons, bills, W-2 forms and etc.
Start from a PDF form
template and use data from a spreadsheet or database to populate it and produce multiple individual documents. Use mail merge to create a set of documents that are essentially the same
but where each document contains some unique personalized
text. Creating each letter, message,
bill, statement, fax, label, envelope, or coupon individually would take hours.

How it Works?

AutoMailMerge provides a complete solution for mass creation of PDF documents
from variety of data sources. Output PDF documents can be optionally secured with
individual passwords and e-mailed to the recipients. The plug-in supports a variety
of different data sources such as ODBC-compliant databases (Microsoft Access, Microsoft
Excel, dBase, Paradox, MS SQL Server, Oracle and almost any existing commercial
and open-source database comes with ODBC driver), Excel spreadsheets, XML documents,
comma and tab-delimited ASCII text files. The software reads data records (in case
of text files - text lines) and fills forms fields of the template PDF form. New
PDF file is spawned for each input data record to create a personalized PDF document.
Any PDF document that has fillable form fields can be used as a mail merge template.
Output PDF documents are saved into an output folder and optionally emailed to the
recipients using email addresses retrieved from each data record.

Save and load processing settings into configuration files or PDF form itself

Supports Adobe Acrobat batch processing (Action Wizard)

Features Description

Create Multiple PDF Documents

Create multiple PDF documents by filling a single
PDF form with data from variety of data sources such as comma and tab-delimited
ASCII text files, XML documents, MS Access database, spreadsheets and any ODBC-compliant
database such as MS SQL Server or Oracle. The software allows you to define correspondence
between data source fields and PDF form fields.

Create Single Output PDF Document

The plug-in provides an option to generate a single compound document that will contain all filled PDF forms. The compound document can be created in addition or in place of separate PDF documents per single data record.

Data Selection

Select all or just a few individual data records to run a mail merge operation on.
Select multiple records by text search or by record numbers.
Advanced users may use SQL selection capabilities to select a desired subset of records out of a large database or table. The plug-in provides a simple SQL expression builder and easy-to-use interface for creating and maintaining a library of frequently used queries.

Fill PDF Forms

Fill PDF form fields with data from a single or multiple data fields. Data from
multiple data source fields can be combine with custom static text to fill a single
PDF form field. This functionality provides an important flexibility when filling
existing PDF forms that cannot be modified to accommodate a particular data source
structure. Most PDF form fields can be populated: checkboxes, radio-buttons, text
fields, combo and list boxes and etc.

Inspect Form Fields

Sometimes, it is necessary to quickly inspect field names and properties without a lot of mouse-clicking and dialog opening.
If a PDF form has security restrictions, then you may have trouble figuring out field names since Acrobat’s “Select Object” tool is not going to work with it.
This is why the plug-in features an extremely easy-to-use “Inspect Form Fields” tool that displays basic properties of the form field just by hovering a mouse pointer over it.

Secure Output Documents

You can limit access to output PDF files by setting passwords ("Open file" and
"Permissions" passwords) and by restricting certain features, such as printing and
editing. The plug-in provides a unique ability to use either the same password for
all output documents or assign an individual password for every output file. Passwords
for each document can be read from a corresponding data record.

Custom File Naming

Create human readable and highly customized file names for output files by combining
multiple field values with a static text. This functionality allows creation of
file names such as "Account - 34565672.pdf" or "John A Doe.pdf".

The plug-in adds a special menu for flattening form fields on one or more pages in the currently opened document. Use this functionality to make information on
a PDF form permanent.

Make Form Fields Read-Only

The plug-in provides an option to make all form fields in output documents read-only. Users will not be able to directly modify field values or click on any buttons. Text fields will appear as regular text without any borders or input areas. This
operation is different from form flattening (although similar in visual appearance),
because it preserves form fields in the PDF documents.

Making Only Selected Fields Read-Only

The plug-in provides a simple way to make certain form fields read-only in output
documents. Simply select fields from the list and the software will do the rest. The
plug-in is also able to fill-in read-only fields with data while maintaing their
read-only status in output files.

Hide Empty Fields

The plug-in provides an option to hide all empty text fields in output documents. If this option is turned on, then all text fields that do not have any characters will be invisible to the user.

Export Data to FDF Files

Optionally save a copy of the form data in FDF (Acrobat Forms Data Format) files.
FDF is a text file format used for data exported from PDF form fields; it is smaller
than a PDF file, because it only contains form field data, not the entire form.

Print Output Files

Automatically print each output document to a default printer.

Add Custom Watermarks

The plug-in provides options for adding dynamic watermarks to each output document.
Text from a data source can be combined with a fixed text to create custom watermarks.
Use this functionality to uniquely label each output document.

Creating and Printing Multiple Labels / Business Cards Per Sheet

It is simple to use the plug-in to prepare and print multiple mailing labels or business cards. Click here to download a detailed step-by-step guide (PDF format, 125KB).

E-mail Output Documents

The plug-in allows e-mailing of output PDF documents to recipients using
e-mail addresses stored in the data records. Email message text can be customized
using data field values. PDF files are sent as attachments. The software offers
two different ways of sending e-mails: using your existing MAPI-enabled email application
(such as Microsoft Outlook) or via Internet mail server (SMTP).

Attach Different Files To Each Email Recipient

The plug-in provides the ability to attach one or more extra files (of any type) to
each outgoing email based on content of a data source field. Data source field should
contain one or more full paths to the attachments.

Use Gmail To Send Documents

You can configure the plug-in to use the free SMTP server provided by Gmail to send out documents.

The plug-in provides the ability to execute a custom Acrobat JavaScript code before
and after generation of each PDF document (for extra customization). Use this option
to change or merge content of the form fields or to create new composite fields.
Another typical use of this feature is to make certain form fields "read-only".

Save Settings

Save and load mail merge settings to/from settings file for reuse. It is also possible to embedd mail merge settings right into PDF form itself.

Processing Log

The plug-in maintains a detailed log that records all details about what forms have been filled with what data, records date and time when and where emails have been sent. This is a great tool for electronic record keeping of all your mail merge activities.

The plug-in provides menu selection for exporting detailed form field properties into spreadsheet-ready format
(either Excel XML format or plain text CSV). The output spreadsheet lists every field in the PDF form along with the following information: field name and type, value, default value,
tooltip text, read-only status, required status, locked status, button type, maximum allowed text length.

Supported Form Types

The current version of the plug-in supports static PDF forms created using either "Tools > Forms" menu or using Adobe® LiveCycle® Designer. Dynamic XML forms (introduced in Acrobat 7) are not currently supported. The plug-in provides advanced
scripting capabilities that allow hiding or modifying form content and therefore
offering a functionality that is similar to dynamic forms. Support for dynamic XML
forms will be added in future versions of the software.

Installing Software

Download a free trial version of the plug-in
to your computer. Double-click on an installation file and follow the on-screen instructions.
Select "File > Open..." to open a PDF form that you want to use as a template
for a mail merge. Select "Plug-ins > Mail Merge..." menu to access AutoMailMerge™
plug-in functionality.

Trial Version Limitations

30-days Trial

The trial version is a fully-featured software that is limited to 30 days and adds "DEMO" watermarks to output documents.

Using Reader-enabled PDF forms

If you are using a PDF form that has enabled extended features in Adobe Reader, then trial output documents will not preserve this functionality. This is due to the fact that the trial version adds "DEMO" watermarks to output documents and invalidates extended functionality. Use full version of the software to fill this kind of PDF forms.